5 Creative Ways to Encourage People to List in a Low Inventory Market

It’s tough to land listings in any market, but when you’re smack dab in the middle of a market with low inventory, they’re like lassoing a unicorn under a rainbow.

You could go with the all-too-common advice of hitting up FSBO’s, or calling on expired listings, but so is every other agent out there. Sitting open houses and waiting for someone who needs to sell their house to stroll in might work, but good luck having a house to even hold open. Or you could cold-call and door knock your days away hoping someone will not only be glad to hear from you, but also interested in selling.

Or, you could try some more unique ways that not only help you find listing prospects, but also encourage them to list their house! Here are six creative ways to do just that:

1) Give ‘em the gift of time

One of the reasons there aren’t that many listings is due to prospective sellers fearing they won’t be able to find a house to buy before they close on their sale. If they knew they could have as much time as they need to find a house to buy, they’d be a lot more open to putting their house on the market.

If you have any first-time buyers you’re working with, they’re the perfect bait for finding listings! Position your first-time buyers as the solution to their concern about having time to buy, since they don’t have anything to sell and have more flexibility when it comes to closing.

Find an area or specific homes your first-time buyer would love to live in and reach out to the owners posing this solution they may not even be aware they so desperately want.

No first-time buyers in your pipeline right now? Share this article to find some, and encourage them to work with you because you’ll proactively try and find houses for them that aren’t even on the market!

Side note: Want to share that article with YOUR branding on it? And hundreds like it? If so, consider joining our Inner Circle.

2) Give ‘em the lowdown on a downsize

Baby Boomers are a huge group of potential sellers. Many of them are empty nesters living in houses much larger than they need, and might love to downsize. But again, it isn’t like there are a ton of houses in any price range to choose from, so they might be hesitant to sell without knowing they could find a suitable smaller home.

Reach out to any prospects or past clients you have that own a smaller house and see if they’d be willing to sell if you had someone looking to downsize. If anyone says yes, use them as a reason to send a letter to a neighborhood or specific homes in areas they’d consider moving to and see if anyone is interested in downsizing, since you have the lowdown on a great smaller home that hasn’t even hit the market yet!

3) Opportunity doesn’t always knock…

Sometimes people don’t even realize opportunity is knocking on their door. As we mentioned above, Baby Boomers (and even some of their parents’ generation) have been staying out in their homes far longer than anticipated. But at some point a whole lot of them will end up flooding the market. When that happens there will finally be some decent inventory. When will that happen, exactly?! Hard to say for sure, but it’s going to happen.

While more inventory would be great for buyers and the market overall, it could lead to more competition and lower prices for Baby Boomers who didn’t sell until the rest of their peers put their houses up for sale.

Share this article with Baby Boomers to give them some food for thought and maybe some motivation to list now and capitalize on the lack of homes for sale, rather than wait and possibly get less for their house than they can now.

4) Send them a handwritten CMA

This idea is courtesy of one of our Inner Circle members, Emily Ching.

Your past clients, family, friends, and sphere of influence may have no clue just how much their house is worth. You don’t have to prepare a full-blown CMA; just find some appropriate comps to include, and jot a short handwritten note to people who have been in their home for a while. Mention how much you think their house is approximately worth, but if they’d like a more thorough CMA you’d be happy to do one for them.

People love to receive handwritten snail mail, and they love knowing what their house is worth. Hopefully it will, but even if it doesn’t land you a listing, it’s a great way to show past clients that they’re on your mind and you go above and beyond for them.

Side note: If you’re looking for possibly the best-kept secret when it comes to online real estate groups, you should join our Inner Circle.

5) Humor them

People love a good laugh, which is why real estate memes are a great way to market yourself and stay top-of-mind in general. But using them to attract the type of client you want is next level use of memes.

If you’re looking for listings, make sure your audience knows it by sharing memes that let people know you’re looking for listings, but also gives them a chuckle. People don’t like to be sold to, or asked for business, but when you package it in a witty way, the message is received without annoying them.

Here’s one to get you started…

…but if you want more, search our Facebook page for others you can use for free. If you want more selection and be able to put your own branding on them, check out our Inner Circle membership!

Now get out there and get yourself some listings by putting one (or all) of the above unique tactics to use, while everyone else is doing the same old stuff!